Masking an area not to be adjusted

[tito69]

I shoot real estate photos and I generally get a good window capture with blending five exposures and I only want and need to brighten and adjust the interior.  I know I can make global adjustents to the whole image and then try to make them go away with the adjustment brush tool on the windows later.

What I was hoping I could do, is mask the windows first in a way they they are not being affected by the global adjustments I am making on the whole image if that's even possible.

Thanks!

[Just Shoot Me]

Why not use the Adjustment brush and don't brush the windows.

There is no masking like you want in LrC. Try Photoshop.

[tito69]

That's what I thought.  I just want to adjust all of the numerous sliders on the whole image versus using multiple brushes without a certain area being affected.

Thanks

[Just Shoot Me]

You only need One Brush, One continuous brush stroke or multiple strokes suing the original starting point, and then you can Adjust all the sliders to what you want for whatever area you have brushed.

[Rob_Cullen]

My thoughts to the conversation-

Considering that you need to do some type of selection to avoid adjusting the windows, it takes no more effort to do it in 'reverse' with a Gradient and the Gradient Brush in erase mode.

1) Apply a 100% Gradient across the whole image (by dragging the gradient cursor away from the image). You have all the sliders you need to adjust the entire image "interior".

2) Now activate the Gradient Brush (not the Brush tool), and holding the [Alt] key you mask (erase the gradient) from the "window".

If your "windows" are considerable brighter than the "interior", you will not even need to erase brush the gradient. You can activate the Range Mask for 'Luminance' and set the limiting sliders for the gradient to affect only the darker "interior", thus perfectly masking any and all "windows" (and bright lights in the image!).

[tito69]

I like it, I will give that a shot.

Thanks!

[dj_paige]

Lightroom Classic has color range masks which can limit the brushing to the color of the house, for example, assuming the windows are a different color. This works really well, and better than manual brushing. There are also luminence masks if that would help on some photos.

Alternatively, you can brush the entire house, and then use the Erase brush to remove the windows. But really, try the range masks first.